Spanco Workstation Cranes: How to Choose the Right System

How to Know If You Need a Workstation Crane?

— So you think a workstation crane might be a good solution to solve your work cells lifting needs. Great. You got options. Ceiling mounted or freestanding. Monorail or bridge. What about headerless? What are the advantages of each? And more importantly, how do you determine which system is right for your facility? Today we are looking at the many different Spanco workstation crane systems so you can better understand which system is right for your needs.

My name is Ben, this is The Lifting and Rigging channel and today we are at Spanco’s manufacturing headquarters in Morgantown, Pennsylvania.

And Arnie Galpin is going to help explain to us all of the different workstation crane offerings that Spanco has. So, Arnie, my first question is, how do you know if you need a workstation crane?

— If you have people working in your factory that need to lift up weight that’s 30 lbs. or more, you really want them to have their own crane this way people aren’t waiting around for the overhead facility crane. You can see in this picture behind us, every single worker back here has their own personal crane. These are called workstation bridge cranes made from enclosed track product. Very inexpensive. It’s a great killer application to get the highest productivity out of your factory.

Ceiling-Mounted vs. Freestanding Workstation Cranes

— So what are some of the questions a facility manager should be asking themselves to help determine which workstation crane system is going to be best for them.

— You’re either going to want a floor mounted crane or a ceiling mounted crane. Floor mounted cranes are great because it allows any facility crane to travel above these individual cranes. When you mount it from the ceiling you don’t have any columns, so you have unencumbered access all around the crane. But then again, your overhead facility crane can’t go into that area. The other thing is, what kind of capacity do you need? These particular systems go up to a two ton limit, which is 4,000 lbs. If your people are lifting 30 lbs. to 4,000 lbs., this is a great application for you. Every person can get their own crane.

Do Freestanding Workstation Cranes Need Foundation Prep?

— If you’re going to get a freestanding system, do you have to do any prep with the foundation. Can all foundations hold that system?

— If it’s a typical industrial floor, which is going to be six inch reinforced concrete, you don’t need to do any prep whatsoever. The columns can bolt to any six inch or thicker reinforced concrete.

Ceiling mounted is a great way to go if you have no overhead crane and you have no obstructions, and your building can support the load. If you need access for a crane to go over top of the individual workstation cranes, then the freestanding system would be the way to go.

Monorail vs. Bridge Crane: Which Should You Choose?

— You’ve got workstation bridge cranes and then you’ve got monorail systems. How do you know when you should choose a monorail system, and is there a big cost difference between the two?

— The monorail is going to be for travel directly in line. Lifts have to happen straight up and down. So the monorail just gives you a line that you can work on from station to station to station. But if you need more of an area coverage, we have the workstation bridge crane, which fundamentally takes that monorail and mounts it on two runways. And now instead of line coverage, now you have a large area of coverage. Cost difference between a monorail and workstation bridge crane is about a little bit more than twice because instead of having one truss, you would have three trusses, two runways, and a bridge.

What Is a Headerless Workstation Crane?

— So I saw you have an option for a headless system for workstation and monorail cranes. So what is a headerless system? And what’s the advantage of that?

— Sometimes you need individual workstation access and also overhead electric crane access. So the header on a freestanding system is the large I-beam that connects the two columns together. And when we do a headerless system, we’re removing the center section of that full header.

Low-Headroom Options to Maximize Hook Height

— What are some options for facilities that have low headroom so they can maximize their hook height?

— Certain applications will have a low roof or a low ceiling. In that case, you want to get the hanging point of the hoist as close as you can to the, to the roof. So we offer double girder applications. And what that does is allows the attachment point on the bridge to move not from the bottom of the bridge, but in between two bridges, so we’re getting it higher. And then we have other tricks of the trade where we can take that attachment point where the hoist hangs and move that all the way up to within four inches of the ceiling.

Can a Workstation Crane Be Moved or Expanded Later?

— Let’s say a company in the future is going to reconfigure their layout and they need to either move their workstation crane or they need to extend it. Are these systems easy to reconfigure?

— Absolutely. In fact, this is where this application definitely shines. When you have a freestanding system, it’s so easy just to take a picture of what you have, disassemble it and move it to another portion of the factory, reassemble it exactly the same way. The way the runways are set up, they’re set up like Legos, so you can easily add, extend out the runways as long as you want. Theoretically, hundreds of feet. Workstation bridge cranes are just great for, for a growing factory or somebody who wants to reconfigure their factory in a future date.

How Enclosed Track and V-Track Improve Crane Movement?

— So Arnie can you explain how the V track design prevents problems that would occur in a more traditional system.

— So a traditional system is going to be made up of wide flange beams. And the wide flange beams have flat surfaces that dust can accumulate on, debris can accumulate on. And as the years go on, these develop into like speed bumps. So it gets a little bit harder to move the trolley back and forth. The great thing about the enclosed track design is it’s shrouded so it prevents the dust from going into the actual track itself and building up on the flanges. And then there is a slight taper. It’s kind of hard to see right here, but there is a slight taper of up to two degrees that forms a shallow V. And as the trolley rolls back and forth on the track the material just kind of naturally exits through the slot. So these will stay rolling very easy for many, many, many years relative to a more traditional crane.

How a Telescoping Bridge Helps With Aisle Picks?

— So what if you’re lifting footprint is larger than your crane footprint, and you need to be able to lift things like, say, out of an aisle or something like that.

— Great question. So if you want to make an aisle pick, we have this solution right here. This is a telescoping bridge and it works very nicely. You can bring the telescope out here to full travel. You can use your hoist to make your pick. And then after you’ve lifted your product into your workstation, you can retrieve it and leave the aisle open for fork truck travel and overhead crane travel.

— So a forklift could just drop something off right here. Crane operator picks it up takes it into his workstation.

— Absolutely.

Common Mistakes When Buying a Workstation Crane?

— So Arnie, what are some common mistakes that people make when they’re purchasing a workstation crane?

— The number one would be knowing exactly what your hook travel distance is. And we got a great example behind us. You know there’s different options available to you to increase your trolley travel distance. One is this enclosed conductor. You can see how this yellow hoist is farther back than the white hoist. And that’s because the white hoist still has what’s called a festoon conductor system, where the trolleys stack up and limit the amount of travel in the bridge. On the system on the left it has full travel to the end stop. On the system on the right, it stops a little short. So you need to kind of take that into consideration when you’re figuring out, well, where do I need to make my picks when I have a crane? What exactly is the area that I need to cover? And your dealer can help you out with that one.

The second one is going to be not sizing the crane for future growth. If you’re only lifting 1,000 lbs. right now, it makes a lot of sense to spec out a 2,000 lb. crane, because that just allows you to grow into it if your needs change and your facility requirements change. And then the last thing is, there are certain duty cycles that are required for certain high production environments. Consult with your dealer, they’re going to know all about the duty cycles and the load spectrums and all the other stuff.

— Cheapest option’s. Not always the best option.

— Absolutely.

What to Do Next When Choosing a Workstation Crane?

If someone is looking for a workstation crane, what should they do next?

— The easiest thing to do is call your dealer and Mazzella is a perfect example of that. Mazzella has a lot of experience with cranes and they know all about the CMA requirements. So yeah, a great organization to call first.

— Hopefully this video helped you understand what different options are out there when looking at workstation cranes, and how to determine which system may be a good fit for you. If you’re ready to explore your different lifting options and solutions, Mazzella specialists are here to help. Contact us through the link below. If you found this video useful, informative, entertaining, or you just feel like being friendly, hit that like button so we can get this information out to everyone who needs it. Remember, safe rigging is smart rigging. My name is Ben. Stay safe out there.